Brian Hutchinson: Report on B.C. salmon decline short on details, long on maybes

Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon report short on details

Bruce Cohen had 133 days of hearings, more than half a million documents, and $26-million to determine what has caused the decline of B.C.’s Fraser River sockeye salmon and to make recommendations on how to save a once-lucrative, once-dependable fishery.

The B.C. Supreme Court judge, appointed three years ago to the federal Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon, presented his conclusions Wednesday.

His three-volume report is almost 1,200 pages long. He titled his opus The Uncertain Future of Fraser River Sockeye, which seems apt, given its limitations.

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Despite all the resources and time he was granted, Judge Cohen has failed to satisfy half his mandate. His job was to present in his report “findings of fact.” He offered almost none. “Key gaps in our knowledge remain,” he concluded.

Sockeye are vulnerable to myriad “stressors” in the Fraser and to “region-wide influences.” In all stages of their four-year life cycle, from hatching to spawning, the fish encounter contaminants, disease, predation, food shortages, rising water temperatures, and more.

All these factors “may have contributed to the long-term decline,” Judge Cohen noted. “Regrettably, that is as far as the evidence takes me.”

This turns to fish food his mandate’s second half. How to fix a problem that isn’t understood? We can’t.

The inquiry was called after the dreadful 2009 return of sockeye to the Fraser River and its tributaries. While there have been many studies and inquiries on the Canadian fisheries, and on the Fraser in particular, all vested parties welcomed this one.

There is no “smoking gun” when it comes to what caused the sockeye decline, said Judge Cohen. Fair enough. No one expected there to be just one reason for the decline.

One critic calls the result filed Wednesday “vacuous” and “filled with fluff.”

The Cohen report is that bad, said Phil Eidsvik, who speaks for the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, a group of commercial fishing interests. His group is concerned about illegal fishing and clandestine sockeye sales, two touchy subjects Judge Cohen seemed determined to avoid as much as possible during the hearings process and in his report.

The judge’s mandate from Ottawa prevented him from finding fault with any individual, community or organization, but he does throw some brickbats. The federal Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) is singled out.

Its “lack of research into the various stressors discussed in this Report means that it had no capacity to draw firm conclusions about the decline as the years unfolded and was therefore precluded from taking remedial action in a timely manner,” the judge writes.

He recommends the DFO live up to its responsibilities and follow prescriptions from earlier studies and reports, some going back to 1986. Essentially, he says it should just do a better job protecting wild sockeye.

Judge Cohen also takes direct aim at dozens of net-pen salmon farms operating in B.C.’s Discovery Islands, an archipelago between the mainland coast and Campbell River, on Vancouver Island. These farms “may have the potential to introduce exotic disease and to aggravate endemic disease, which can have a negative impact on Fraser River sockeye,” reads a summary.

In a press conference held after his report was made public, Judge Cohen drew a firmer line, declaring “the potential harm posed to Fraser River sockeye salmon from salmon farms is serious or irreversible.”

His report recommends eight years from now, if Canada’s minister of fisheries and oceans isn’t “satisfied that such farms pose at most a minimal risk of serious harm” to migrating Fraser sockeye, the minister should prohibit net-pen salmon farming in the Discovery Islands. Their operations should simply cease.

In the meantime and starting immediately, his report adds, the DFO should prohibit any increase in farmed fish production in the archipelago and allow no new farm licences there. It should also conduct more testing to determine the impact of farms on wild Fraser sockeye and give non-government researchers better access to fish farm data.

The B.C. Salmon Farmers’ Association says it supports Judge Cohen’s request “for more research in the Discovery Islands area.”

By all means, let the scientists continue their work, says Mr. Eidsvik. But important measures could be taken now, to prevent what he and many others consider the clearest, most direct threats to the sockeye: Their illegal harvest and sale.

“It’s the biggest problem in the Fraser River,” he said. “There are huge, unreported catches going on,” particularly among First Nations, but there is little emphasis on law enforcement.

The Cohen report notes the severity of the problem, but offers just a vague recommendation — enforcement funding should return to levels reached, temporarily, after another study weighed in on the subject eight years ago. It also recommends the DFO determine the meaning and impact of “food, social and ceremonial fishing by First Nations.” Even aboriginal leaders have admitted such fishing can be used as cover for the illegal harvest and sale of sockeye.

Instead of tackling discernible problems caused by humans behaving badly, Judge Cohen gives them short shrift. It’s no surprise, really; his commission devoted just two of 133 hearing days to enforcement issues.

His report, on the other hand, gives hundreds of pages to scientific “what ifs” and “maybes.” As the judge says, regrettably, that is as far as the evidence took him.